Sorrento Therapeutics hires Mike Royal as Senior Vice President of Clinical Development

SAN DIEGO, March 3, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Sorrento Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: SRNE; Sorrento) a late-stage clinical oncology company developing new treatments for cancer and associated pain, today announced the addition of anesthesiologist and pain specialist, Mike Royal, M.D., JD and MBA. He was most recently Chief of Clinical Affairs at AcelRx.

"Mike's expertise in drug development and pain management is exceptional and key to our success in advancing our clinical pipeline," said Henry Ji, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Sorrento.

Dr. Royal commented, "I am very excited to join Sorrento during this period of rapid growth and to lead the development of Sorrento's clinical pipeline of oncologic and pain related assets. I look forward to working with the Sorrento team to bring these groundbreaking targeted therapeutics to patients and physicians."

Dr. Royalbrings more than 20 years of drug development experience where he was a key contributor to over a dozen ANDAs, and several NDAs, most recently Zalviso™ at AcelRx and Ofirmev® at Cadence (currently being acquired by Mallinckrodt). He is board certified in internal medicine, pain medicine, anesthesiology with additional certification in pain management, addiction medicine, and legal medicine. He has authored or co-authored more than 170 papers and abstracts. Previously, he was a clinical adjunct professor at the University of California San Diego and the University of Oklahoma Medial School, and a faculty member at the University of Pittsburg Medical Center. He has also worked at Elan, Alpaharma and Solstice Neuroscience. He graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in synthetic organic chemistry. He earned his M.D. from the Massachusetts Medical School, law degree from the University of Maryland School of Law, and MBA from TRIUM (NYU-Sern, HEC-Pairs and the London School of Economics).

About Sorrento Therapeutics, Inc. Sorrento is an oncology company developing new treatments for cancer and associated pain. Sorrento's most advanced asset Cynviloq, the next-generation paclitaxel, will commence its registrational trial and be developed under the abbreviated 505(b)(2) regulatory pathway. Sorrento is also developing RTX, a non-opiate TRPV1 agonist currently in a Phase 1/2 study at the National Institutes of Health to treat terminal cancer patients suffering from intractable pain. The Company has made significant advances in developing human monoclonal antibodies, complemented by a comprehensive and fully integrated ADC platform that includes proprietary conjugation chemistries, linkers, and toxic payloads. Sorrento's strategy is to enable a multi-pronged approach to combating cancer with small molecules, therapeutic antibodies, and ADCs.

Forward-Looking StatementsThis press release contains forward-looking statements under the safe harbor provisions of Section 21E of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. Forward-looking statements include statements about the potential for the successful advancement of our clinical-stage products; the retention of key personnel; and other matters that are described in Sorrento's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2012, and subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the risk factors set forth in those filings. Investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this release and we undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statement in this press release except as required by law.